Chief of Staff

Position: Chief of Staff 

Status: Full-time, exempt

Location/Time zone: Remote, anywhere in the U.S.; Eastern time zone strongly preferred.

Term: This is a one-year fixed-term position, with the possibility of extension based on organizational needs. 

Deadline: Priority consideration will be given to applications received by October 23, 2026. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Starting Salary Range: $140,000-$155,000 annually

About Us

re:power is a national organization seeking to build a critical mass of social justice movements and their leaders who embody the ideology and practice of liberatory organizing, an organizing practice that is pro-Black and grounded in community, collective action and abundance. Our ultimate vision is a liberated, multiracial democracy, free from the oppressive systems of white supremacy and patriarchy. 

We work towards our vision of inclusive politics by offering training and strategic support to leaders and organizations across the progressive ecosystem. Our trainings build skills, strategy, and soul in organizers, campaigners, elected officials, and other leaders across our movement. re:power offers trainings on organizing, campaigning, technology, collaborative governance, and leadership development and resilience. 

Formerly known as Wellstone Action, in 2018 we rebranded into re:power - maintaining the depth and breadth of our training curriculum, but explicitly centering Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Since 2019, re:power has been led by Karundi Williams, re:power’s first black woman Executive Director. Under her leadership, our small but powerful team has trained and supported more than 10,000 leaders across the movement. Our alumni reflect the communities we center — 83% identify as BIPOC as do the majority of our trainers, 76% are women, 7% are trans and gender expansive, 37% are LGBTQIA, and 14% are youth (ages 18–24). We are proud of what we’ve accomplished together in such a short time, and also know that in order for our communities to continue winning and driving positive change, we must keep building our skills, capacities and networks. At re:power, we thrive in this transformational work. Our team is laser-focused on achieving our mission. Join us!

Position Overview and Responsibilities

The Chief of Staff joins the Executive Director and Deputy Director as part of re:power’s senior leadership. The Deputy Director leads internal operations: people, finance, systems, and day-to-day organizational health. The Chief of Staff focuses on the Executive Director’s priorities, external strategy and relationships, board engagement, and cross-organizational initiatives. The Chief of Staff will play a significant role in providing strategic and operational support to the Executive Team to achieve greater alignment across senior leadership. The Chief of staff reports to the Executive Director and supervises the Development and Communications leads.

The Chief of Staff is a senior strategic and organizational leadership position that serve as a key partner to the Executive Director and Executive Team. The role helps translate organizational priorities into coordinated action, ensures leadership alignment, manages critical relationships, and drives cross-organizational initiatives. The Chief of Staff serves as a strategic thought partner and organizational connector, helping ensure that leadership time, attention, relationships, and resources are aligned with re:power’s highest priorities.

The position supports executive decision-making, strengthens communication and coordination across the organization, advances external relationships and Board engagement, and leads or facilitates high-priority organizational initiatives.

Duties will include: 

• Strategic Advising & Execution
  • Support the Executive Director in focusing time, attention and resources across competing priorities and opportunities.
  • Facilitate strategic decision-making by ensuring relevant information, perspectives and considerations are elevated to the Executive Director, and by helping to clarify options and inform a path forward.
  • Identify strategic opportunities for the Executive Director to advance re:power’s priorities and elevate her voice, presence, and leadership across the movement.

• External Engagement & Relationship Management
  • Serves as a senior leader and partner to the Strategy and Engagement Team, connecting organizational strategy to the Development and Communications departments. 
  • Partner with the Development team to shape and advance fundraising strategy, including the ED's funder relationships.
  • Strategically map and prioritize external relationships and partnerships that support re:power’s mission and programmatic strategies. 
  • In collaboration with the Executive Director, help strengthen Board engagement by strategically managing communications, relationships, meeting planning, coordination, and follow through.
  • Serve as connector for re:power, identifying opportunities for relationship cultivation, collaboration, and partnership;

• Organizational Leadership & Special Initiatives
  • Serve as a member of the Executive Team,  supporting  organizational alignment through cross-functional planning, coordination and execution of key priorities and initiatives.
  • Support decision-making by identifying what requires Executive Team attention, providing the relevant context and information, and helping determine appropriate next steps.
  • Partner with Executive Team members to identify and develop practices that strengthen communication, collaboration, decision-making and cross-organizational coordination.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have the following professional and personal qualities, skills, and characteristics. It’s okay if you don’t meet every single requirement!

• Management and leadership expertise: Minimum 10 years of relevant professional work experience in executive leadership, people management, project management, and a proven track record of managing director-level leaders. 
• Strategic thinker and proactive problem solver with strong judgment: Able to see the big picture, identify what matters most, anticipate challenges, and help leadership make thoughtful decisions amid competing priorities. Serves as a trusted thought partner and “truth-teller” to the Executive Director, offering candid and constructive feedback, having difficult conversations, and understanding how and when to challenge, support, or advise. 
• External relationship management: Significant experience cultivating relationships with partners, funders, coalitions, community leaders, movement organizations, or other stakeholders and identifying opportunities for collaboration. 
• Board and governance experience: Experience working with nonprofit boards and supporting effective board governance, including prepping leadership and board members for meetings, facilitating communication and decision-making and supporting organizational leadership in managing relationships with board members. 
• Nonprofit or movement-sector leadership: Leadership experience in nonprofit, advocacy, organizing, philanthropy, social-impact, or movement organizations. Fluency with 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations, including the structural, strategic and operational considerations. 
• Inclusive leadership and management: Has the ability to articulate a clear vision and recognizes the value of divergent perspectives. Approaches leadership with a mindset of “power with” rather than “power over” and regularly includes others in planning and decision-making. Able to make and communicate difficult decisions in the best interest of the organization. Demonstrated experience leading multiracial teams to accomplish results, ability to cultivate staff development through direct feedback and strong inclusive and equitable management practices.
• Discretion, confidentiality and trust: Demonstrated ability to navigate sensitive and confidential information with care and discretion.  Builds and maintains trust with organizational leadership and colleagues through transparency, clear communication, reliability, and consistent follow-through.
• Mission alignment: Commitment to re:power’s mission to build a critical mass of social justice movements and their leaders who embody the ideology and practice of liberatory organizing — an organizing practice that is pro-Black and grounded in community, collective action, and abundance. 

Compensation and Benefits

Starting salary for this position ranges from $140,000-$155,000 with new staff typically coming in at the middle of this range. In an effort to counter pay inequality, the Chief of Staff starting salary is nonnegotiable and benchmarked to competitive markets in the nonprofit sector. re:power offers a comprehensive benefits package with excellent/health/life/disability insurance, including these and other employment-related benefits:

• 95% employer-paid health and 90% employer-paid dental insurance premiums for staff and their families;
• 100% employer-paid life and disability insurance;
•  exceptionally generous and flexible paid time off;
• 401k retirement benefits with a 4% employer match;
• FSA enrollment;
• 90 days of paid parental leave;
• 12 weeks of paid sabbatical leave

Application Deadline and Instructions

This position is open until filled, and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Our ideal start is January 2027, however, the position will remain open until filled.

We welcome applicants to also include additional relevant samples of their previous work—written reports, links to web-based publications, curriculum, meeting agendas, grant proposals, event invitations, podcasts, pitch letters, press releases, videos—and any other materials demonstrating communication skills or subject matter expertise are welcome, but not required at this stage.

re:power is an equal opportunity employer. We eagerly invite people of color, Native American and Indigenous people, immigrants, women, genderqueer and nonbinary people, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and others to apply for all open positions at re:power. 

re:power offers a lively and highly rewarding professional environment. We are committed to creating a world where our lived experiences, perspectives and ideas are fully represented and that starts first within our organization. This position can be located anywhere in the United States convenient to regular travel, with a strong preference to Eastern time zones.

For more about our work, go to www.repower.org.